Easy overnight pickles! No canning or anything.

4 small pickling cucumbers
3-4 sprigs fresh dill weed
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 gloves garlic: minced OR 1 tbl jarred
*1 1/2 tsp pickling salt OR kosher salt
1/4 black peppercorns
Pinch red pepper flakes.

*A few notes on the ingredients.  I love the Private Selection Peppecorn Medley from Kroger. It gives a great depth of flavor to these. The Sea Salt is also fantastic.

Next:

Pack your clean dry jar (s) with sliced cucumbers and onion.

Mix the brine ingredients well. Until the salt and sugar feels dissolved. Others might heat this, you can, but definitely don’t have to.

Pour in jar, lid tightly. and shake!

24 hours in fridge and a delicious pickle chip awaits you!!

Stuff:

I grew Dill from seeds from Rebel Gardens.

Rebel Gardens on Amazon

Kroger Private Selection Online

Ok. So. This isn’t going to be a measured, neat, consistent looking recipe.  Together we can get the idea. Let’s go.

Here’s what you need. Veggie choices are yours. I’ll show you what I used.

I love these White Sweet Potatoes.  They offer a unique sweetness and texture. I skin these, and leave the skin on the red ones. I used a sweet vadalia onion, about half. And carrots.🥕🥕

Then the star of the show!! The bird.

I patted this guy dry. In the cavity and out. Most bacteria conscious people may not like this, but I let it sit on the counter and dry even more as I prepped my veggies.

I discarded the giblets and what not. No thanks.

I folded the wings under, and used salt and pepper together, tossed into the cavity. Little more over the bird.

This blue speckled roaster makes me happy. It’s been with me for a long time. Has a lot of meals under its belt.  It just makes me feel something nostalgic.  I love it. I sprayed it with olive oil. This really neat Misto thing was used for that. Then I put my veggies in there, with some fresh basil and Mrs. Dash.

Now for this so easy herb butter.  Found these “roasting herbs” at Kroger.  You could easily use any herbs you desire here. This blend was a good chicken blend in my opinion.

You could also use real honest to goodness butter, I used “Smart Balance. ”  to me, it tastes just as good,  and is easy to cook with.

Put your butter in a saute just until it gets white there on the edges.

Add your herbs.

Saute for just a few minutes. Move those herbs all around to lift out the fragrance and flavor that butter!

Take off the heat, and stuff those herbs into the cavity.

You are now left with this delicious herbed butter to brush all over the chicken. How delicious would this herbed butter be on a grilled steak??

Place chicken on a rack and brush that luscious, fragrant herbed butter all over!

Now ya roast. 350 – preheated oven for an hour.

Here is the kicker. Don’t cover that bad boy.

Let it roast!!

Kitchen Fact:

The safe internal temperaturefor cooked chicken is 165° Fahrenheit (75° Celsius). A meat or instant-read thermometeris your best bet for determining thetemperature of your chicken, and if you’re cooking a whole bird, it should be inserted into the thickest part of the thigh but not touching bone.

Wine choice should be a blush one, or moscato, or even a sangria complements all these flavors.

I pictured that wine bottle holder. It’s another thing that makes me happy. Bought that in beautiful Cancun.  It brings to mind that beautiful place and the memory is perfect.

Stuff:👇

MISTO

DELALLO

Simple Truth Organic

Deer Creek Wine

How about some refreshing Mason Jar, personal iced tea?

Here’s a fun way,  and the possibilities are endless.

Need:

16 oz. Mason Jar (s)

Tea bags of choice.

Sugar, which is optional.

Water💧

Lemons, berries, mint leaves, or anything you desire! I used apple slices before.  You could even add all the above for a wonderful fruit infused iced tea.

Add your tea bags to jar. For the 16 oz. Jar, I used three.

Fill with your water. Then add in your sugar, berries,  lemon slice, mint leaves, or however you design your own personal tea.

Lid that jar, and place in refrigerator to “brew.”

If it’s sunny out, put that out in the sun!☀️

Couple hours, either way, you have your tea over ice.

Fun idea:💡

For a dinner or lunch crew, use the smaller size jars and make a variety of teas for each guest!

Iced tea reminds me of Summer. Let’s have tea.

💕

I saw a meme on Facebook, poking fun at the food bloggers and the long stories before you get to the recipe.  It was funny, quite true, and I snickered.  I however, enjoy the story.  I read it all. Food and cooking are an experience.

I’ll jump right in here, to the dinner I cooked this evening.   This won’t be a fancy measured recipe to print out. Let’s just experience a cool dinner idea, that is easy and simple.

The Sheet Pan. Once I only thought you baked cookies on these, but yowza, you can do a lot with a simple sheet pan!

Tonight we did sheet pan roasted vegetables with grilled eye of round steaks.

I’ve had this Tupperware Marinader thing FOR YEARS.  the miracle is both pieces are still around.

This is a simple marinade,  that brings out delicious flavor to the eye of round cut.  These cuts can be pretty tough, but with this simple recipe,  they grill up fabulous.

1/2 cup each olive oil and balsamic vinegar,  4 cloves garlic, salt, pepper. Add your steaks to this any way you usually marinate.  A plastic bag even.  I let those marinate as I prepared my veggies.

I found this adorable salt grater from “Salted”

I use it often,  and used the Himalayan Pink Salt in this recipe,  to taste.

Line a sheet pan with foil. You don’t have to, I do because clean up is a breeze.  I add olive oil to the foiled pan, much like you would Pam or cooking spray.

Thes Potatoes from Kroger’s Private Selection line are so neat!! “Petite Medley”

Washed and cut in half. They add such a great color layer to your pan.

I used zucchini,  baby bella mushrooms,  yellow squash and halved grape tomatoes. The thing about adding grape or cherry tomatoes is, as they roast they create another flavor layer, and almost make a sauce.  Mixed with the seasonings and olive oil, the flavors are spectacular.

Once all your veggies are chopped and on the pan, drizzle with about 1/2 cup olive oil and add whatever seasoning you enjoy.  Even salt and pepper alone is fine. I used the Penzys Ruth Anne’s Meskego Ave., for chicken or fish. But let me tell you, what this seasoning does for roasted vegetables is fantastic!! I’m out of it now. So I need to stock up! I am really a huge fan of all things Penzys.

Roast in a 425 oven for 40 minutes. After about 20 minutes, I’ll go in and turn everything. At that 20 minute mark too, you can check to see if your Potatoes are done, and gage your time from there. It’s not an exact science I guess.

The steaks were grilled perfectly.

I paired a BlackBerry wine with this meal. A deep color, such as red, brings out all the flavors with steak and vegetables. This wine from Rettig Hill is not a super sweet or extra dry wine. It was perfectly paired here.

Sheet pans make such easy and simple dinners, with little effort to clean up! It’s a great way to get your veggies in.  The possibilities are endless too.

Use any vegetables your family loves with chicken, fish, sausage, steak. Anything!

Cooking and enjoying food is indeed an experience.  Enjoy the stories people tell, especially over dinner.

❤

Kroger Private Selection Online

Rettig Hill Wines

Salt Grater found on Amazon

Penzeys Spices Online

I won’t give you a full on out story or novel approach to what I made for breakfast this morning.

I will tell you, it’s a cold Winter Sunday morning.  Our sun is out, but it’s cold. Windy. “Blustery” they call it.

At least once on the weekend we cook a big breakfast. When the kids were growing up it was eggs made to order, sometimes French Toast,  bacon, fried potatoes, and lots of pots and pans banging.  Teenagers hated that. Yet loved the breakfast.

I’m still in that mode, even though it’s just the two of us. This morning I made a Turkey Sausage Egg Bake and Honey Bran Muffins.

Without further fanfare,  here are the recipes:

Turkey Sausage Egg Bake.

This one won’t be as professional looking as the muffins. I’ll give it a good go here though.

The great thing about this bake is its versatile,  customized to what you like, and how big you want it to be.

What I did:

I browned a pound of Turkey Sausage.  I used the Simple Truth brand. I guess it made me feel better to use that brand. 👩‍🍳 I whisked 6 eggs with 1/2 cup milk, pinch of red pepper flakes, salt, pepper to taste, and about a tablespoon dried basil.  Halved grape tomatoes,  2 green peppers chopped, red onion, baby bella mushrooms,  and cheddar cheese shredded.  Rubbed olive oil in a 13×9 pan, added all the ingredients with the eggs poured over, and cheese on top.  Baked in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.

There are indeed leftovers!! I’ll portion into individual squares and it’s a great fast breakfast during the work week, warmed in the microwave. This would be a fantastic brunch with friends too. Adding the ingredients to your liking. Ham, other veggies, and anything you enjoy in an omelet works too!

Sunday Breakfast.  Warm and comforting on this January Winter day.

Vacation. Packing. Oh what on earth to I take? Trying to cover every possible clothing scenario. What if I need that one blouse? Oh and that one eyeshadow? Those earrings.  I never wear them, but what if I really need them there?  Socks? Will I need a lot of socks? The struggle for this “You never know ” kinda personality is real.

I could write an entire novel of the neverending conversation of if TSA will approve my lipstick, or if I need to carry on my shampoo, or which is which? How many ounces are actually in a pound? Do I have to check my purse? What if my shoes don’t pass?  Very odd things go through my mind. I’m not looking for an international incident because my hair gel is a few ounces off of the mark, and I should have checked that.

We went to Jamaica.  It would be, and absolutely is, impossible to translate properly exactly how beautiful it is there. Upload, upload, upload, picture after picture just trying to express the beauty.  I was accused of “not being in the moment ” by some Facebook commenter,  because my phone was in my hand,  but the truth of that was I indeed was in the moment. The majestic sea, the soft breeze, the sound of the waves, the smell of the air, the smiles of the people around me, laughter, music somewhere always playing, conversations,  too much rum punch,  or possibly not enough. The warmth of the sun hitting my face.  A straw inside of a coconut,  and drinking the water inside!

I spent a lot of time just looking at the beach line. Staring really.  Where I was sitting one day, I looked beyond the white caps. You couldn’t see the ending. I watched a bird fly out. To the deepest blue color. A boat was going past, the music playing somewhere behind me. My husband said he was watching me. Watching me watch actually.  He said, “you love this, don’t you?”  Of course, yes. But I added that I was  “feeling this.”

I think that you can look at something all you want. Feeling it, with your eyes, it yet another whole thing.

I walked along the little beach line one day and felt a lot of things.  As the waves went out, I decided with them, a few things were going to go out of me too, at least try not to allow things in, and out, and back again.  Maybe I don’t need to become upset by every little thing that happens around me. Perhaps I save the upset for what matters. To that end, not apologizing for being hurt. That’s a big thing.  We feel hurt by an action of another,  and somehow end up apologizing for that?  Odd, but we do it.

Maybe, quit trying to be a “better person,” and just be the person you are.  Take a few deep breaths, before you speak.  But, speak. Your truth doesn’t have to be anothers. Which explains why it’s yours.  Understand other people. Understanding doesn’t always mean agreement. Disagreement doesn’t always mean a fight.  Bring the right energy into the things you live and breathe.  Locate some sort of balance.

I forgot a few things there.  I suppose I brought back the important things.

I took the earrings out of my suitcase, put them back in my jewelry box, because I might need them next trip.

“You forgot something. ”

Yes. I did.

✌